Thinking about the future
This website is a big-picture scenario depicting a transition to an optimistic future during the decades of the 2020s & 2030s and beyond. The ideas it contains come from futures research into a wide variety of so-called ‘weak signals’ — early warning signals that are now far stronger than when they were first identified.
The overall scenario that emerges refers to future events, but primarily it depicts a future change in worldview, that is, a new cultural outlook and intellectual perspective. This places it at the greatest causal depth beneath the surface of events. It involves deep underlying changes, their evolution, and their consequences in terms of cultural change. This contrasts with most scenarios and other exercises in future thinking which tend to stay at the level of possible events in business and politics.
This work is deliberately positive and avoids negative scenarios of the years ahead, not because they could not exist, but to emphasize that there are reasons for hope. Being deliberately optimistic is a better recipe for future outcomes because optimism inspires enthusiasm and encourages actions that can make a positive difference. In contrast, pessimism is psychologically unhelpful as it leads to a passive or fearful stance towards the future, which tends to become a self-fulfilling negative prophesy.
Like any scenario, it is intended to play a preparatory role by helping to illuminate and clarify probable changes, and by offering a contextual framework for initiatives aimed at co-creating a future fit for humans. It is offered as an inspirational future image to act as a focus and catalyst for your own creative thinking about our human future.